I flew into New York on Wednesday, August 4th, stayed out in Brooklyn with our good pal/ guitarist Grey Macmurray. Grey showed me some new spots in Brooklyn and we had a great breakfast and it was ridiculously hot. Thursday night I did a really fun show with Crystal Moneee Hall at Living Room in the Lower East Side with Rich Armstrong, Yair Evnine and Ben Yonas. We had a terrific time and it had been a while since I’d played bass with Crystal, mostly been playing the bone with her, so that added some extra challenge for me which is always good to clear the cobwebs. After Crystal killed em’, we went a few blocks down to Rockwood Music Hall. Amazing spot, I’ve seen so much good music there and this time was no exception. Bay Area native Sahsa Dobson was in town for a few days on break from touring in Norah Jones’ Band – It had been years since I’d seen Sasha do her thing so it was great to get an update live. She brings a very unique blend of real jazz, with some old country, bossa and rock. Her band was smoking too. Perhaps the highlight of the night was stumbling into the “new” room at Rockwood which is much bigger than the tiny room and it’s right next door. Trixie Whitley was performing her weekly residency there. Apparently she’s the daughter of Chris Whitley who is a big deal but I knew nothing about until this night. Anyway, she kinda reminded me of a Fiona Apple for lack of better comparisons, low voice, talented on the piano but also really unique style on the electric and acoustic guitars as an accompanist. We got her CD and I’ve been bumping it.

By this point many of the Jazz Mafia musicians were showing up so a bunch of us got a dicsount room at the Marriott Residence in Times Square – Big ballin’ BUT not with 5 people in a room :  But that’s how we have to roll sometimes to save on the dough ya know? PLus it’s kinda more fun being cozy anyway, if you can deal with the epic, Earth shattering snoring of Joe Cohen!
We continued the night at a few more bars and made it to the beds at around 3 or 4. I think I slept on the floor but not sure.

in the days on Thursday and Friday I dedicated most of my time to being indoors rehearsing the NYC musicians who were joining 20 of us to make up the 45 piece Brass, Bows & Beats group for the Newport Jazz Festival Performance on Saturday. I was su pleased with all the musicians that we got on board and once again, dozens of new friendships and music connections were started because of our Symphony and the opportunities it has brought forth. We were especially lucky to have a few incredible musicians form Maria Schneider’s orchestra; Charles Pillow on flute and Greg Gisbert on trumpet. Success.

Friday after the rehearsals we cruised to Newport with about 12 of us in a van, got stuck in insane traffic going to the JFK to pick up “found” luggage; Thanks to Delta, they lost a huge box of all our CDs for the tour. After Ben calling them for 2 days and screaming they magically appeared. So, it took 6 hours to get to Newport from NYC but we had a lot of fun in the van playing Charades, The Movie Game and whatever else bands do when trapped in close quarters like that for hours.

When we finally made it to Newport Friday night, we quickly forgot about how crappy the drive was and were greeted by Joe Bagale standing on the porch of an incredible 7 bedroom house on the cliff of the Atlantic Ocean in Newport. YES! Joe had done all the shopping, fridge was stocked and we were RET TO GO! Joe’s high school buddies Jason and Theressa were so kind as to let us stay in their parents’ new place that was in mid remodel, perfect! Nothing we could do to mess it up really! There were up to about 20 people sleeping there by Saturday night and it felt completely comfortable. We saved thousands of dollars by not having to get hotels and we were able to stay for an extra day. We all felt lucky to get that kind of love. Jason and Theressa you guys are the best!

Going back to Friday night – Me and Pdub kinda wanted to get outside and cruise around the “downtown” area of Newport, which is really just a bunch of bars and shops on the Marina. Wait…did someone say MARINA? Hahaha, yes indeed the Mission invaded the Marina once again but this time it wasn’t SF’s Marina, it was New England Style! I was shocked at what I saw but like an overturned big rig, I couldn’t stop staring and people watching, It looked like literally dozens of wedding receptions had just finished and hundreds of drunk groomsmen and bridesmaids took over this 1/2 mile long strip of dozens of bars. I could be wrong, maybe they weren’t from weddings but it really reminded me of that vibe, Anyway, Pat and I cruised to many of the “hotspots” and managed to get some good ideas for the next “preppy” party, The best part was finding a tiny hole in the wall bar called “Sara’s Bar” connected to Rouchard’s Restaurant. We were chillin; there having a Sweet Tea Vodka Lemonade and some “Jersey Shore” dude was yelling at another dude screaming obscenities calling the other guy a “Jersey Shore dude”…Everyone in the bar was busting up. Priceless. No footage of that one unfortunately. Another funny thing is when we were at the bars talking to people we’d mention that we were playing at Newport Jazz Fest the next day, kinda like bragging I guess – but NOBODY in the Marina knew what we were really talking about. It’s like a different world.

On the way home Pat and I got lost and ended up going on an impromptu tour of some of the nicest neighborhoods at night. Super fun; I love the architecture, each house was totally different, even though all the people in the Marina looked exactly the same haha.

Saturday we woke up early and got to the festival early for soundcheck at the Newport Jazz Festival. The setting was breathtaking; Mainstage is out on a grassy filed at the edge of the Harbor with the Bay and Bridge behind the audience – Behind the band is a fort from the late 1800s which looked more like a castle. We were on the mainstage with one of the best Jazz festival lineups I’ve ever seen; Ahmad Jamal, Mariah Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Chick Corea/Kenny Garrett/Christian McBride/Roy Hanes…Oh and for the ladies….Jamie Cullum! The side stages were at times even better than the main. Scary good lineup.The highlight for me and many of the the others was Ahmad Jamal, who is one of my all time faves and he played the best I’ve heard him. Herlin Riley was on drums. Success.

The BBB set went off without a hitch, which is in itself a miracle. Getting that 45 piece band on stage, set up, soundchecked and running in less than 3 hours was something I’d thought impossible until this summer – We’ve got it down to a science now! I was expecting not that many people to be in the audience since we went on first but the crowd was there and gave us lots of love, it was much more than I had hoped for. The band smoked it and there were new features and talent that shone through from our guest NYC musicians. The rest of the day was spent listening to the aforementioned bands and us getting into all sorts of trouble and mischief. Dublin took a tour  of Fort Adams and got a little bit of a history lesson which he tried to explain to me in the van as we were leaving the festival but I couldn’t understand him because we had 17 people in a 13 passenger van WITH instruments. Awesome.

That night we went back to our giant house on the ocean took swims, ate home cooked meals from our hosts and enjoyed the perfect 75 degree at night weather, Me, Joe Cohen,Dublin, Erin and KAryn went to a highly recommended Seafood Shack to get a taste of the New England vibe; Lobstah Rolls, Clear Chowdah, Clam Cakes and many other fried delicacies were definitely an epic food success however, the Lobster Rolls didn’t live up to the expectations but still were yummy.

Midnight Saturday night brought the next crazy phase of our very action packed weekend – P DUB’s  BIRTHDAY!!!! Memory is spotty but some events included 15 of us stumbling around downtown at closing time causing trouble, lots of walking, Joe Bagale playing a new game invented by Rachel Hornaday called “TVDJ” (AWESOME) and all sorts of madness back at the house on into the early morning.

Sunday morning the “Lobsta” crew went to breakfast and had Crab Cake Benedeict; Yet another food success for the tour.

Sunday night Shotgun Wedding Quintet performed out NYC debut at the said Rockwood Music Hall. After seeing so much quality music there during my past few NYC experiences it was a real honor to be hittin’ there. We did a set with Crystal Monee first – Damn she always sounds so good – Even if the bass player (me) is messing up her songs! hahaha

Our Shotgun set was spirited; We played many new songs and featured NYC guests within our action packed set including Matt Nelson, Ryan Snow and a very talented singer who’s name I will work on getting, The owner loved us so we’ll hopefully be back soon!

After the show we continued celebrating PDubs Bday, stumbling around the East Village, Goodtimes. Another night with 5 of us crammed in a nice hotel room – Another night up til 5am and another night spent hanging out with some of my most funny,crazy and loudest snoring friends ever. I love you guys. Special thanks to our “Road Managers By Proxy” Rachel and Erin – Y’all helped out a lot and it was really special having y’all there for the journey.

Well, laptop battery is about to run out so I’d better send this off to Dylan before it’s too late. Hope to see y’all this weekend in San Jose Saturday when Jazz Mafia takes over the Jazz Festival! Checkout the lineup!

Stay Classy,
Adam Theis